An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to beating his 4-year-old stepson to death. The Columbus Dispatch reports John Reeves was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he whipped Lawrence King III with a leather belt and killed him at the family’s Columbus home in March. Reeves said he was trying to correct his stepson. An investigation found that Reeves beat the boy because he was acting up and wouldn’t stand in the corner.

…Police say the boy’s mother, 24-year-old Nikki Reeves, turned up the radio to drown out the sound of a beating. She’s awaiting trial on child endangering and murder charges.

…But Reeves’ father, the Rev. Michael Reeves Sr., defended his son. “John is not a thug,” he said. “He is not the villain he has been portrayed in the media. … I’m sorry for what happened, for what my son allegedly did, but there is more to the story.”

You know how many times this happened before their were child protection laws? My dad had his back broken after his dad threw him down a flight of stairs because he forgot to bring in my grand dad’s toolbox, punishment in 1950’s Indiana, nothing.

Folks, I see this all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve attended an incident of domestic violence and children CLINGING to me so hard. They want to go with me so bad to get them out of there. I had to start carrying lollipops in my bag to soothe them.
We’ve had child victims brought into our headquarters to have their injuries photographed.
Sometimes those injuries are in private areas. There is so little privacy after a crime.

I don’t wear a uniform, and no gun…so I guess I’m less intimidating. I try hard to respect the privacy and feelings of a child.

To think of a woman, turning up the volume on a television so her child’s screams can’t be heard is depraved beyond belief.
Beating deaths are terrible. And so many children who die from them, usually have old injuries that were never treated that make them irritable.
They are in terrible pain sometimes for months. Exacerbating a violent parent’s lack of patience with them.

Sometimes, don’t you wonder where God was when these children were suffering so?

It’s heartbreaking, I was trying to type a reply to this when I became so overwrought that I just started bawling. My desire to see vengeance against this couple is strong, but that makes me scarcely any better than them. Beyond revulsion and feeling tremendous sorrow I just don’t know how to feel.

Regan said, “Sometimes, donâ€™t you wonder where God was when these children were suffering so?”

I stopped wondering many years ago when I concluded that gods do not exist.

We all know there are some demented Christian fanatics who would believe the child somehow deserved to be beaten to death – for being demon-possessed, for example. Maybe that is part of what the reverend meant when he said, “. . . there is more to the story.”

Regan – I really appreciate reading your comments on this blog, and thank you for your work in protecting kids. I have to put in a comment about this though:

“To think of a woman, turning up the volume on a television so her childâ€™s screams canâ€™t be heard is depraved beyond belief.”

Yes, that struck me as overwhelmingly depraved at first also, but what is even MORE depraved is a father bludgeoning his kid to death.

Our social mores say that women are cherubic protectors of children, while men are violent monsters who are prone to hurt children. I believe in recognizing and challenging these stereotypes, as they hurt us all.

Wait . . . The killer has already pleaded guilty and has been sentenced. So, if there really were “more to the story,” wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that the reverend/father would have told that story in the courtroom?

After all these suicides, and the anti-gay people coming out in droves to oppose anti-bullying measures, and having recently reread most of Letter to a Christian Nation, I am not currently feeling well disposed toward religion in general or Christianity in particular.

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When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.